Demolition Men

We have no kitchen. Well, we technically still have a sink, a cooktop, and a double oven, but the rest of it is kaput. We barely even have walls! C and the boys have been taking hammers and crowbars to the place all weekend (I took a couple of whacks too), and I honestly feel my house will never be clean again--no matter how many doors I shut or how many times I sweep, vacuum, and wipe up, the whole house is just covered in dust, dust, dust.

We did turn our sunroom into a temporary kitchen (I'll post on that tomorrow, with pics), so we are not completely helpless or reliant on takeout, but it is definitely going to be a challenge to eat healthfully and heartily.

The demolition revealed some interesting things, some fun and some questionable. The room seems much larger and more open without the cabinets and especially without the huge soffits. It appears our dropped ceiling may have only been lowered to accommodate the can lights; we'd love to raise the ceiling back up, but we do need lighting in that part of the kitchen, so it may not be possible. The soffits turned out to be mostly empty, which is great news. The floor, on the other hand, might be a bigger problem than we expected; the mud/cement holding down the tile is extremely thick (probably used as a leveler) and could be a bear to remove. Underneath all that is a yellow sheet vinyl attached to what we think is the original pine floor. It's probably good that C did so much work as Greg and his team may need the extra days on the floor!

Here are a few pictures:

B knocking some plaster off the chimney.

The floor under our current tile, probably from the 1968 remodel.

One of the uncovered wallpapers--the kitchen was once the dining room, maybe that's why so many wallpapers? This one looks quite old.

This one was behind the cabinet in the laundry room!

This is where our pantry used to be; the door goes to our dining room. There is an outlet on the beam. This will be turned back into a wall, but only on the kitchen side. It remains a door on the dining room side (odd, yes, but we don't mind). This door used to lead onto the porch before it was claimed for the kitchen. Note yet another type of wallpaper on upper right.

Sink wall without soffits. Plastic backsplash is still up here.

Above cooktop, where the microwave used to be. Questionable junction box hanging atilt on wall.

Front of chimney, still some plaster left.

Here are a couple of whole room shots:

Scary, isn't it? We've decided this is as far as we'll go on our own, and we're leaving the rest to our capable GC. As far as all those cabinets--some of them did get trashed while being removed, but C was able to save quite a few of them. They will have a new home out in the barn, where they will house tools and other miscellaneous garage-type things. Hurray for recycling!

From Tuesday on, I'll try to post at least every other day so you can check on our hopefully swift progress.